Themes Of British Social Realism

Growing Up & Aspiration:
Maturing and growing up in life and making big steps forward in life. Aspiration in British social realist films is usually the characters trying to sort out their problems. Their aspiration can be both positive for example like Mia in "Fish Tank" or negative liked the younger brother in "Bullet Boy".

Example Films:
*This Is England
*Adulthood
*Fish Tank
*Sweet 16
*Looking For Eric

How Example Film Explores The Theme:
*Sweet 16- showing the children shave and spending free time with adults to try and aspiring to get the adults acceptance by doing the jobs they want them to do. Examples of the jobs they have to do are violent crimes like attacks and on some occasions murder.




Race, Ethnicity & Cultural Tensions:
Cultural clashes and tensions in environments, these can include people feeling like they don't particularly belong with a certain culture like the children in "East Is East" or tensions from cultures like those in "This Is England" and "Snatch" where the characters are at odds with foreign immagrants or people of rival ethnicities. Another big part of Race in British Social Realism films are racism and how people suffer from it and give it out to other people.

Example Films:
*Snatch
*East Is East
*This Is England

How Example Film Explores The Theme:
In the trailer of the Snatch the trailer immediately introduces the gangs and their ethnicities while giving the characters a catalyst to allow them to show show the audience their hatred for one another. We also get a glimpse at some racism in "Snatch" when a character calls an Irish Gypsy a "pikey".






Social Class:
British Social Realist films often deal with the working class and even underclass characters because of the opportunities that the peoples lives allow the filmmakers to deal with such as drug addiction, alcoholism and living in poverty to name a few.

Example Film:
*Brassed Off

How Example Film Explores The Theme:
"Brassed Off" shows the lives of several average working class people doing activities that're typical of people of their class and shows the average living style of people who're working and underclass. We see accents and dialects that're commonly associated with working class people and we see them arguing over things which are stereotypical of people who're working class such as having no money.


Violence (often with gangs)
Explore violence such as domestic abuse/violence. The films also explore motivated and verbal violence and use things like gang violence to help exploit it.

Example Films:
*Football Factory
*Kidulthood
*Adulthood

How Example Film Explores The Theme:
Football Factory explores common motivated violence amongst people of working and underclass like football hooliganism. We see how their motivated violence is behind football teams and is very similar to the violence in Kidulthood and Adulthood which is instead of being motivated by football teams is motivated by gangs.




Sexuality:
Types of sexuality and sex that most British films would make more positive not as sad or in some cases not tackle at all such as homosexuality, underage sex, pedophilia , ethnic sex and rape to name a few.

Example Film:
*My Beautiful Laundrette

How Example Film Explores The Theme:
The film explores homosexual relationships and ethnic relationships which at the time were not themes that were often explored and even now the former isn't often explored in a realistic manner.




Gendre Roles & Relationships:
These films often have the themes of absent father figures and bad surrogate fathers or father figures. We also see friendships that are often formed by the environment the characters live in for example the skinheads in "This Is England". The films also look into abusive relationships such as relationships with domestic and child abuse.

Example Films:
*Nil By Mouth
* Once Upon A Time In The Midlands

How Example Film Explores The Theme:
Once Upon A Time In The Midlands shows the contrasts in relationships and how they affect people. We see a mans fear for another man who threatens his love for a women. We also see a woman being controlled via fear from an ex lover to not have a relationship with another man.



Addiction:
Drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, petty crime, self harm, fights and theft are forms of addiction that the films try to explore even though some of the addictions are not as obvious as some of the others for instance an addiction like self harm is not the most typical addiction you expect to see in a film. When the characters are addicted to something and get their fix the filmmakers often exaggerate the scene so the audience gets a greater feeling of what the character feels at that moment on time.

Example Film:
*Trainspotting

How Example Film Explores The Theme:
Trainspotting the shows characters withdrawal addictions and the highs of their drugs in either really positive lights or really negative lights. The films theme of addiction also takes on surreal approaches to show the feelings the characters get. The theme of addiction also allows the film to incorporate sexual themes and themes of violence.

British Politics:
Condemn them in most films and always portray them in a negative light. The films often show the working class as being bullied by the government and the government don't care about their reactions.

Example Film:
*This Is England
*Hunger

How Example Films Explore The Theme:
In Hunger we see a real life figure who was tormented by the government as a lead character and his ordeal is a central aspect of the story, the events of the film and the theme of politics always show the government as bad and because the story is biased to the lead character the government is always shown as a primary antagonist and the reason the characters and environment they live in are so poor.



Immigration:
Explore the difficulties of immigration and the outcome of their decisions in society, to them and the people around them. This can include being attacked and abused or even having cultural difficulties among the generations of families, when younger generations try to adapt to their new surroundings.

Example Film:
*This Is England
*East Is East
*West Is West

How Example Film Explores The Theme:
The characters who have immigrated are shown as being received with hostility and racism. We also don't get a condemning view on the people who are affected by the immigration. We're given two sides to view the effect of immigration, one from either party.




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